WELCOME TO THE PRO REPORT, where we’re congratulating Sen. Jeff Flake for stealing first in The Hill’s “50 Most Beautiful” list, released today. No doubt the Arizona Republican’s ranking had something to do with those bare-chested photos from his family’s Castaway-style survival trip to a deserted island this spring. Bored on the commute home? Find out who else made the cutie cut: http://bit.ly/16j3rVO. Scoopers and tippers email: rbade@politico.com. Or tweet me @ RachaelMBade and follow @ POLITICOPro.

TODAY’S TOP NEWS:

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1) ADMINISTRATION RELEASES NSA DOCS. Josh Gerstein looks at the declassification of a court order authorizing NSA telephone-record collection, just before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the matter: “The order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court sets a five-year limit on storage of the call data, restricts access to ‘personnel with appropriate and adequate training,’ and states that the data can only be searched based on a ‘reasonable and articulable suspicion.’ However, the court does not approve each query to the database. In addition, the Obama administration deleted from the public version of the order most details about what sort of evidence could constitute an association with terrorism and result in a search of the call data. The names of terrorist groups the program is focused on also appeared to have been redacted.” http://politi.co/12GrcZa

2) SLOW ECONOMIC GROWTH BETTER THAN EXPECTED. Jeffrey Sparshott and Sarah Portlock at The Wall Street Journal digest the first read on second-quarter economic growth: “The U.S. economy is faring a little better than previously thought, but the overall picture is still one of lackluster growth. The nation's gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, expanded at an annualized 1.7 percent pace from April to June, beating expectations for a 0.9 percent increase. The second quarter reading follows a downwardly revised 1.1 percent for the first quarter of 2013. But broad revisions to GDP figures also showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a stronger pace in 2012 than was previously thought. GDP last year expanded at a 2.8 percent pace versus a previous estimate of 2.2 percent, according to the revised figures released by the Commerce Department.” http://on.wsj.com/13w39GW

HOT TICKET: CAMP TO MARK UP TAX REFORM IN OCTOBER. Kelsey Snell scoops for all ye tax wonks: “House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp plans to move forward on a tax reform bill before a November showdown over raising the debt limit, according to several committee aides. Camp plans to draft legislation in the coming weeks and hopes to have a committee markup in October. … Camp … explained his thinking Wednesday during a closed-door bipartisan meeting of Ways and Means members. … Camp … wouldn’t rule out the possibility of linking the completed tax reform bill to the debt limit talks. … Camp told committee members that he plans to write a tax bill that would cut the top corporate and individual rates to 25 percent and repeal the alternative minimum tax for both corporations and individuals. Democrats responded later in the day by releasing an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation that says such an approach would cost about $5 trillion over 10 years.” http://politico.pro/17jbdvY

THURSDAY: LAWMAKERS HEAD TO W.H. FOR NSA DISCUSSION. The group that will sit with Obama to talk about the surveillance program includes, per POLITICO’s Burgess Everett: Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and her ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.); House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and his ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.); and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). Burgess writes: “Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) … said Obama was willing to consider proposals to alter the NSA program on Thursday that might reassure some critics but also brought up the recent Boston bombings as an example ‘where that NSA database that everybody’s worried about helped us identify whether there was a great plot.’” http://politi.co/1aX0DPu

OBAMA DEFENDS SUMMERS IN MEETING. Huddled in the CVC’s basement auditorium with House Democrats, President Barack Obama on Wednesday defended former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — the supposed front-runner to be the next Federal Reserve chairman — from attacks by his own party. “He felt that Larry had been badly treated by some on the left and in the press,” Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly spilled to reporters after the meeting. Congressional Democrats have circulated letters calling for Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen to replace Ben Bernanke, not Summers. “He mentioned that he had made no decision, was close to no decision but didn’t like the disparate” treatment of Larry, Connolly recounted. “He gave a full-throated defense of Larry Summers and his record of helping the economy.” Our Ginger Gibson and Burgess Everett have more: http://politi.co/1colX1V

THUD BREAKDOWN. The House on Wednesday afternoon suddenly pulled from floor consideration bills funding the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments. Leadership tried to pass it off as a timing issue, telling Morning Transportation author Adam Snider that “this week has gotten busier than expected with the number of amendments being offered … so we're going to finish the bill when we return.” But we’re calling bull. More likely: The GOP can’t swing the votes because some moderate Republicans are objecting to cuts to Amtrak while other tea party-righties want steeper cuts. David Rogers has more: http://politi.co/1ceMosi

— The Senate’s version of the bill is also in trouble, our Adam and Scott Wong say. Tomorrow’s procedural vote on the measure will be “tight” since three of the six Republican appropriators who supported the spending measure in committee are pondering a 180. Why? “Because the bill exceeds federal spending caps laid out in the Budget Control Act,” my colleagues explain.

SEN. MARK PRYOR GETS A CHALLENGER: Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). POLITICO’s Katie Glueck reports that Cotton will announce his bid to challenge the Democrat next week. And already some on K Street are betting that Pryor drops from the race because the oil and gas industry — and their money — will swing behind Cotton. http://politi.co/1407lSX

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ON PRO TODAY —

THE NEXT NOMINATION WAR: RON BINZ. Darius Dixon reports on the looming battle over Obama’s pick for the agency that regulates the nation’s electric grid. "Ron Binz’s nomination as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has yet to attract a groundswell of opposition on the Hill. But The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page fired off a starter pistol for Binz’s critics this week with a lengthy piece attacking him as ‘the most important and radical Obama nominee you’ve never heard of,’ citing his past efforts to shut down coal-fired power plants as a regulator in Colorado. … Now Binz’s critics will have the long August recess to crank up the opposition machinery before a confirmation hearing expected in September. The recess ‘gives everybody another 35 days to stir the pot. If you’re Binz, it’s 35 days you’re not going to get a chance to answer any questions,’ GOP strategist Mike McKenna said. 'Come Labor Day, we’re going to know if this guy is alive or dead.'" http://politico.pro/16EtgxD

NOT ON THE OBAMACARE WELCOME-WAGON: SCHOOLS. That’s right. Don’t expect Junior to get off the bus with enrollment forms or info brochures. Pro Health’s Kyle Cheney explains: “[T]here’s no concerted effort to reach parents at the schoolhouse door. It’s yet another sign of how the undying controversy could overshadow attempts to get people enrolled.

"Education Secretary Arne Duncan told POLITICO this summer that his department has no plans to actively advocate for the health law, only providing help when asked. ‘No one has asked us,’ he added. … The National PTA isn’t gearing up either. ‘National PTA does not have any plans to assist in the dissemination of information about the Affordable Care Act,’ said spokeswoman Abiah Weaver." http://politico.pro/16F2iGk

JUDGE PITCHES DEBIT CARD SWIPE FEE CAP RULE. The court basically found that the now-tossed fee cap was too high at 21 cents per transaction. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is already cheering; and the likes of Visa and MasterCard are probably already amassing lobbyists to influence the rule rewrite. That’s because, as our Kate Davidson reports, the move has the potential to crush the banking industry’s “years-long effort to preserve some of the billions of dollars in profits these fees generate. The decision could pave the way for a much lower cap on the fees paid by merchants, who filed a lawsuit in 2011 challenging a Federal Reserve rule that they said failed to set fees that were reasonable and proportional to the cost of the transactions for banks.” http://politico.pro/16ExvJI

BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON TRIES TO MOVE ON AFTER SNOWDEN. Leigh Munsil reports: “Revenue for Booz Allen Hamilton was down slightly in its earnings report on Wednesday, the company’s first since the leaks of former employee Edward Snowden put Booz Allen into national headlines. … [It] decreased by about 0.3 percent to about $1.4 billion. … Company executives have hardly spoken publicly about the [Snowden] incident. … But on Wednesday, Booz Allen’s CEO Ralph Shrader went straight for the elephant in the room. ‘The most significant news of the past quarter was the abhorrent actions of former employee Edward Snowden, who had worked at Booz Allen for less than 10 weeks. I spoke to all of our employees at a town hall meeting, …’ he said. ‘I told our employees: Mr. Snowden was on our payroll for a short period of time, but he was not a Booz Allen person, and he did not share our values.'" http://politico.pro/1bK9veV

“MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON” PILOT FINDS NEW CAUSE. And it actually has nothing to do with plane crashes. Pilot hero Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed a damaged jet safely on the Hudson River in 2009, is working to curb medical errors, our Kyle Cheney writes in a profile. Sullenberger says medical glitches kill 200,000 people a year, “the equivalent of 20 jetliners crashing per week.” A clip: “Sullenberger … crisscrosses the country, pleading with policymakers to embrace practices to reduce medical errors and save lives. … Just last week, he was featured at the American Hospital Association’s annual leadership summit in San Diego. … [T]he aviation industry and the relevant government agencies have minimized death by human error. But deaths from medical errors are still strikingly common. It’s not just ‘bad apple’ physicians. The systems are at fault, too.” http://politico.pro/11uXqUg

PELOSI, OBAMA PREFERS PIE. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi might have given Obama a chocolate birthday cake for his upcoming 52nd birthday during the closed-door meeting Wednesday — but earth to Ms. Leader: He prefers pie. Flashback to this 2008 video on the campaign trail: http://bit.ly/u6nsQ. “I like pie. You like pie too?” Obama asks a crowd, then continued to praise a place [where] he ate pie: “We ask, ‘What kind of pie ya got?’ And they didn’t have sweet potato pie, they didn’t have pumpkin pie. They had some cream pies mostly, which is OK with me. So I got some coconut cream pie. And [Ohio] Gov. [Ted] Strickland, he got lemon meringue pie.” “He doesn’t have a huge sweet tooth, but he’s a big fan of pie,” Sam Kass, White House assistant chef — who, by the way, is third on The Hill’s beautiful people list this year — told National Geographic in early July.

— At 10 a.m. Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Obamacare while the Ways and Means Committee gets a spiel from Daniel Werfel on the IRS side of the same topic. At 9:30 a.m., the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee looks at the “political status of Puerto Rico” Res. Com. Pedro Pierluisi (D-P.R.) and other island leaders.

POLICY AROUND THE WEB:

— Just days before the release of the July job numbers, ADP reports that private-sector employment jumped 200,000 this month — more than expected. Here’s Kathleen Madigan at the Journal: http://on.wsj.com/13nxfjz

— There’s a mini war being waged in California between pot growers and farmers over land, and the violence that comes with growing the buzz leaf. William Harless at WSJ: http://on.wsj.com/15ccYPX

— Fun fact: Hawaii sets aside $100,000 each year to fly 17,000 homeless people back to their states of origin, the Daily Mail reports: http://dailym.ai/1ea0ojM

— The Juice: Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times, gave a tell-all to Newsweek’s Lloyd Grove, reflecting on the story POLITICO media reporter Dylan Byers wrote about her having no friends in the newsroom: “I cried.” http://thebea.st/11tJ8TQ

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Authors:

About The Author

Rachael Bade covers House leadership for POLITICO. In addition to her congressional correspondence, Bade has also followed and written in depth on the various investigations surrounding Hillary Clinton, including the FBI’s probe of her emails set-up as well as the House Benghazi Committee’s work.

She joined POLITICO in September 2012 as a tax reporter, covering the IRS tea party targeting scandal and Hill efforts to reform the tax code before moving to the Congress team in early 2015. Prior to POLITICO, she covered congressional committees for CQ, wrote Hill features for Roll Call and contributed to The Washington Diplomat.

Bade is a Dayton, Ohio-native and UD Flyer. She freelance dances for several contemporary ballet companies when time permits, drinks copious amounts of coffee, and enjoys Bikram, hiking and camping.